


Hope and Loss

by KetchupandMayo



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, I tried to be serious, Rhea's family extends but then Sitri dies, happens before Seteth returns, rhea tries to learn how to cope with loss : it fails, small Jeralt mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28852665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KetchupandMayo/pseuds/KetchupandMayo
Summary: Sitri is really happy to become a new mother, even if it means she is going to die. Rhea doesn't understand.
Relationships: Rhea & Sothis (Fire Emblem), Sitri Eisner | Byleth's Mother & Rhea
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Hope and Loss

“I do not want to have any regrets Lady Rhea, if I live denying this, then I would better be dead.”

Rhea pretends not to understand, despite seeing for a split-second someone who died a very long time ago. 

“This bond you speak of... whether you deny or accept it, you will end up suffering from it.”

“Then I'd rather suffer and have experienced joy and shared it with Jeralt than live without it. When I will pass away, he might be sad, but for each moment of sadness he will remember the days of bliss and happiness we shared, and that child will be proof of our love.”

Nonsense.

When a human dies, nothing remains. The reason why they shouldn't be attached. Her poor brother would never recover from that wound, even if his daughter were to wake up in the following year. Such a talk is fit for someone who will not live like them, for a...

For a human.

Not for them. Sitri is a failure after all, she is not like them, she is only...

“You become more and more human with each passing day.”

“Do I? I think that no matter what species we are, everyone needs bonds to escape loneliness, even you Lady Rhea.”

Loneliness? Was it what it was? Her mother...

If Mother returns, then this emptiness will disappear. Bonds with humans, no, even with her own siblings, were fickle. They could be created and severed at will, leaving nothing behind, but her, with all of those feelings. Sadness, sorrow, guilt... She knew them too well.

That figure from a long time ago brought her warmth, joy, support and love.

Death erased all of those feelings, nothing remains but a name and a pain that will never go.

“When I am with Jeralt, the world, already full of radiance, suddenly starts sparkling around! Everything gets a new meaning, even food acquires a new taste! The world is already beautiful, but when I am at his side, it is as if I am relieving the most magnificent play from a fairytale!”

Those two were... children.

They had fleeting lives, so why not indulge them, for no matter how long they would exist? Maybe they could start their family, maybe they could live that dream she had never been able to...

No, she always had other priorities. Just like now. When Sitri will pass away, she will recover the Crest Stone and... Start anew.

Mother must return and guide the land.

“Then I will do whatever I can to make you experience the joys of raising a family of your own.”

The child's eyes lightened with hope, hope against the impossible.

Hope that she would not die from carrying a new life in her womb. This vessel that was just supposed to house Mother's conscience but developed one on her own has also a right to find happiness.

And yet, if Sitri had been successful, then Jeralt would have never fell in love, that child would never have been conceived and Sitri herself... There is also the small possibility that Sitri's conscience would have developed, along with the Progenitor God, they would share the same body and Mother would have found a way to transmigrate from this host to another empty vessel, but...

Deep inside, Rhea knew each attempt is made first and foremost with the goal of Sothis gaining total control over the vessel, vessels aren't supposed to house any inherent conscience.

What would Mother even say about her forbidden experiments?

It does not matter, she might be punished, but Mother would return, guide this wayward land once again and...

Cethleann might recover, Cichol, Indech and even Macuil could return. Her kind would not be hunted anymore, there would be no need for all those lies, transgressions and secrecy...

Mother could even bring back the dead heroes to life. What was the price to pay for the return of the goddess, one or two failures of her own? Any life was sacred, creating lives for the purpose of taking it away was the greatest sin once could make. The soul resides in the crest stone, she is sure of it, but the body departed. The soul must be tied to another body, another body able to contain it but a body without a conscience of its own...

Still... Is it what Mother would have wanted? 

Sitri will turn into one for a being born out of affection she has for a human, not for ulterior purposes. Would Sitri wish for her child, if it had to happen, to sacrifice everything to bring her back ?

Sitri is not the Progenitor God, her return would not mean a thing in the ways of the World.

And yet, Sitri loves this new being inside of her unconditionally. Would she be saddened if that life were to extinguish to bring back hers?

Rhea resolved all those years ago to bring back Sothis to life.

Killing Nemesis had nothing to do with that, but why has she started to work on that project? Why has she been transgressing her people's most sacred values, why did she want to bring Mother back?

To guide the land. To protect what was left of their kind. She is not strong enough to guide humans, she is not strong enough to protect everyone, Aubin did not listen to her, Aubin died when her Church was supposed to hide what happened a thousand years ago.

If Mother returns, then she will finally know what she has to do; Mother will be able to guide her, to guide everyone... They could all return to those peaceful days, her brothers would be reunited again without anguish or fear of extinction.

Cethleann wouldn't have to hide any part of her heritage.

Mother would, just one last time, take her in her arms again.

Sitri is right, she is lonely.

“You are also part of that family, Lady Rhea. Even if it will only be for a short time, together we will be able to create and share all of those bonds and feelings of happiness. If you wish, of course!”

That child never ceased to surprise her.

She knew why she was born, knew her status as a failed vessel and yet wishes to share her happiness with her? Why? The only other person who puzzled her so much had been that...

“It is kind of you, but you have to seek your own happiness in times like these, Sitri.”

She stared south, beyond the walls on the Monastery, in a specific direction.

The child brought her back to Garreg Mach, holding her hand gently but her eyes showed the same determination she had when she refused her earlier proposal. Despite her weakened condition, Sitri has the same fire as the Captain of the Knights.

"I cannot be that selfish Lady Rhea! If this child is going to help Jeralt cope with my passing, then I wish for him to help you too! This is why, if I can just only ask one favor from you..."

At times that child could be as selfless and stubborn as Cethleann, which made her wonder if they could have become friends, had fate allowed them to met. No, not fate. If she had been stronger, if she had been able to protect her niece, if she had been able to heal the world like Mother did...

"Would you please name my child?"

**Author's Note:**

> And then Rhea opened her Ars Goetia copy and named the kid Byleth!
> 
> Rhea's torn between firmly believing nothing remains when someone dies so there's no need to form bonds, but then she acknowledges it's because she bonded with those dead people that she feels so bad when they die, the logical solution is to stop forming bonds, but Sitri has none of this BS solution.  
> As we all know, it didn't end as she predicted ^^  
> Sitri's pregnancy makes Rhea realise the ethical implications of the taboo she's breaching by creating artificial lives. I believe Sitri was the last attempt and Rhea would have moved on afterwards, especially since Seteth (and Flayn a few decades later!) was coming back, but Byleth awakening Sothis' conscience – being a perfect host – made her hope, again, that Sothis was returning...
> 
> Cethleann and Sitri would have become the bestest "cousins-friends" ever!


End file.
